MAKE IT LAST FOREVER: THE ... - National Service Resource Center

is integrated into academic
curricula, but this can take
many forms. Projects can be
focused on one or multiple
subjects and/or grades, can be
based on pre-existing or
customized curricula, and can
source the development of
curriculum guides for teachers
and administrators.
Occasionally, service-learning
is treated as a separate course at
the secondary level, which may
or may not guarantee an
academic connection.
Policy: Schools, local and state school
boards, and state legislatures
can support and have
implemented policies which
encourage, support, or require
service-learning and/or
community service for some or
all K-12 students. Some
policies require educators to
include service-learning in their
educational plans. Other
policies support the conditions
within schools that enable
service-learning to thrive.
Building Personnel: Various individuals may be
available on-site at schools to
assist teachers and students
with project implementation,
including curricular integration,
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curricular skills and
competencies, usually in more
than one academic discipline.
This ensures that the activities
are assessed as part of the grade
for the class, rather than being
treated as an extracurricular
activity.
Policies demonstrate
commitment to the pedagogy,
clarity of expectations about its
use, and in some cases provide
resources to practitioners, all of
which can support teachers in
utilizing service-learning. In
places where service-learning is
automatically supported, a
policy merely articulates its
importance, while in
unsupportive environments, a
policy may cause controversy
and dissention, although
usually the initial resistance
gradually gives way to support
as people become more
familiar with service-learning.
Project design, implementation,
and problem-solving is easy.
School-wide projects are easier
to accomplish
completion of a certain number
of hours, which is usually
performed without teacher
supervision during out-ofschool
time. As a servicelearning
class, credit is given,
but for service rather than for
an academic subject.
Sometimes community service
activities are performed and no
explicit link to academic
learning is made.
Service-learning may not earn
the high profile necessary to
persuade some educators and
administrators to utilize the
instructional strategy, and it
may therefore remain a
separate government-funded
program or the practice of a
handful of educators or schools.
Funding to support servicelearning
infrastructure is
unlikely to appear.
Teachers have to do more of
the work, which may or may
not deter them from doing the
activities.